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Thursday, 21 January 2016

BOOK BLITZ - A BEAUTY DARK AND DEADLY BY HEATHER C. MYERS

Title: A Beauty Dark and Deadly

Author: Heather C. MyersGenres: New Adult, Romance

BLURB supplied by Xpresso Book Tours

Emmy Neal needs a job. Desperately. Her grandfather, the only family she has, is in and out of the hospital due to various illnesses and the medical bills are stacking up. It’s difficult to find a steady job in South Haven – everything is either taken or seasonal, except one.

Jason Marshall needs a maid. His cabin and his eating habits have been declining recently, though, to be fair, they have always been in a slippery slope. Being out o the public’s eye for the past five years has given him time to remember why he started rapping in the first place and work on his fourth studio album. The problem is, everyone still believes he killed his wife and her lover even though he was legally acquitted on a technicality, which makes the prospect of a comeback difficult to come by. If he can get one person to give him a chance, he knows others will, too.

In this modern retelling of a classic fairytale, Emmy will learn that beasts can be beautiful, love can be dark, and attraction can be deadly.

Heather’s books
are being published in a fun, non-traditional way: you sign up for a newsletter
after which you’ll receive roughly a chapter per week (~1,000 words). Subscribe
for A Beauty Dark and Deadly here! For Heather’s
other books:

Love in Neverland –
the sequel to Death in Neverland (which is free here, so if you’re
interested in this, please download your copy!) **Clean YA

The Art of Persuasion –
A young woman falls through time and into a naked pirate’s bedroom. In
the Eighteenth Century. *Romantic Comedy (possible swear words, sensuality, but
no graphic sex)

Inheriting Starlight –
Two sisters with claims to the throne of their galaxy. Both our lost,
waiting to be found and waiting to find themselves. **Romantic Sci-Fi.

EXCERPT

Chapter 1

The first thought
Emmy Atler had upon seeing him was how someone so beautiful could kill his wife
and her lover. Because Jason Marshall
was beautiful; any woman (and even some men) who could see (and anyone who
could not see most certainly could feel) his beauty. While he was relatively short for a male,
standing at five foot ten, he had incredibly angular features. His face was heart-shaped, with high
cheekbones. His eyes were dark, deep,
and soulful, hidden behind thick-rimmed glasses. Emmy made sure to note not to stare into
those eyes in fear that she might lose a piece of her in them. His lips looked soft and shapely, his top lip
only slightly smaller than his bottom lip.
Oddly enough, it was Mr. Marshall’s nose that Emmy was fascinated with
the most; it was pointed and defined, the nostrils flaring out almost like the
wings of a bird. His hair was dark and
shaggy, constantly falling into his face on its own accord. It was longer than normal, coming down to
about his chin. His shoulders were
broad, hidden by an old, tattered robe.
Emmy noticed that for a man of thirty-eight, his body was still in good
shape as evidenced by his clinging muscle shirt and loose pajama pants.

“I’m here to answer the ad,” she said, mentally scolding
herself for how small her voice sounded.
Emmy was usually more forthcoming; she wasn’t used to being intimidated
by anybody.

However, Emmy was beginning to expect that Jason Marshall
was a different man entirely. He had
begun to develop a well-known reputation as an esteemed author after he
published his first book. The man was
talented, and because of that, he started making money. As always, however, night did accompany
day. Jason began holing up in his home
office, plagued with deadlines, appearances, and writer’s block. The papers interpreted his isolation as a
strain on his marriage and even managed to uncover his wife’s secret,
seven-month affair. Jason had to
discover it in the papers. Next thing he
knew, his wife and her lover ended up dead in a Motel 6 and he was being
accused of committing the act. Two years
later and after clearing his name, he took residence in his old cabin in Lake Tahoe. He was also a rapper, something Emmy was much
less familiar with, publishing three platinum albums on top of his writing
career. He did not tour, and performed
only rarely. From what she knew of his
music career – which wasn’t much to begin with – he was an amazing rapper.

He smiled at her, causing Emmy to look away. The sun seemed to shine differently when he
smiled.

“You seem to be the only one to do so,” he told her in a
soft-spoken voice. Emmy had seen Jason
being interviewed on television a few months back, and she found it rather
baffling that the man had a voice that sounded articulate and mumbled at the
same time. It was a low tenor and gave
her chills; she hoped it was because she was intimidated by him.

“I guess that means that you’re hired,” he continued,
opening the door wider – a silent invitation to come in.

She hesitated, and glanced at her two suitcases idly on
the cement porch on either side of her.
It had been rather presumptuous of her to assume that she would get this
job, but she highly doubted that anyone else would be applying, and upon seeing
his surprised look when he first saw her, she assumed that he felt the same
way.

As Emmy stepped over the threshold that would mark the
beginning of the end for her, she began to reflect on why she had decided to
take the cleared murderer up on his job offer.
Her grandfather was a wounded war veteran who barely managed to make
ends meet with merely his disability check.
He was the only thing Emmy had in the world and she loved him more than
anything. She was currently a senior in
college, about to graduate, but instead of finishing at the moment, she saw
this opportunity to help him out and decided to take it. This, of course, was against her
grandfather’s strictest wishes. It broke
her heart that she had to leave him, but the pay was good, and they needed it.

“Well, I assume you want the tour then,” he said,
glancing at the ground as he scratched the back of his neck.

“Actually, could you just show me to my room?” she asked.
Even Emmy could admit that she sounded
rather forceful and she quickly looked away to avoid that penetrating stare of
his.

Jason paused for a beat as he stared at her intensely,
before he nodded once. This caused his
hair to fall in his face and his hand reached up, his long fingers pushing the
locks out of his face; a chain of events that Emmy expected to happen quite
often.

“Uh… yeah,” he said, and then began to lead her through
the unkempt living room up to the base of the stairs.

Emmy watched his movements with interested
curiosity. They were swift and fluid,
however somewhat ungraceful as well. She
noticed a rather large hole in the train of his robe, which was flittering
behind the man in hopes to keep up with him.
To be honest, Emmy was somewhat surprised that she was carrying both of
her suitcases. She had been raised by a
man who had lived in the time where chivalry was an unwritten rule, and
expected the men of today to have some form of familiarity with etiquette,
despite it being practically extinct.

As though Jason Marshall could read her mind, he stopped
abruptly and spun around, causing his hair to curtain his face once again. Emmy had to strain her muscles to stop so
that she would not run into him.

“I apologize,” he said, after brushing his hair
back. “I seem to have forgotten my
manners.” He looked at her bags before
meeting her eyes. “May I?” he asked,
raising his firm brow.

Emmy’s face betrayed her thoughts by turning an
unattractive shade of red. Deciding not to
trust her voice, she nodded and handed him her bags. Emmy made it a point to avoid accidentally
touching him, and once the two bags were in his hands, she mumbled a meek word
of thanks. The corner of his lips curled
up in response and again, he nodded, before turning and finally ascending the
narrow staircase.

XPRESSO BOOK TOURS

INTERVIEW WITH

HEATHER C. MYERS

What inspired you to write A Beauty Dark & Deadly?

I knew I wanted to do a retelling of Beauty and the
Beast. It’s one of my favorite
fairytales. However, it was important to
me to ensure that my story was different.
I love darkness, but still sappy romances. I also majored in Criminology, so legal technicalities,
miscarriages of justices, and public perception of celebrity legal issues are
things I’m interested in. As such, the
story took shape and I wrote. I also
want to raise uncomfortable questions to make my readers think: would you be
with someone who murdered his wife in cold blood for having an affair? What if he was found not guilty? What if you could never be sure one way or
the other? What if you did?

Can you tell us about the love story between Emmy and
Jason, without giving too much away?

Jason is isolated and lonely. He’s dealt with betrayal of the worst kind,
and stood trial for murders he may or may not have committed. He knows he’s famous and there will be women
who want to sleep with him and be with him because of his money and notoriety,
but he genuinely believes true love will not find him anymore because of his
baggage. Emmy, on the other hand, is
young and reserved. She’s helping her
grandfather with medical bills and taking care of him as best as she can. But desperate times call for desperate
measures, so she goes to work for this man everyone believes killed his wife
and her lover. She wants to hate him –
she’s afraid for her life – but she realizes there’s more to him than media
perception, and as much as she doesn’t want to explore that, she does.

Serializing your novel entirely for free is almost
unheard of in the publishing industry – both traditional and indie. What made you decide to do it?

I read a lot business books, and the best advice I ever
got was to change your perception on making money. Don’t ask what value you can get from your
readers, ask what value you can give to them.
I’ve found the most successful I’ve ever been is offering some of my
work for free, providing a professional, entertaining product on a consistent
basis, and that is my intention here.
It’s a different way to get my work out there, but I’m excited at the
new adventure this will be!

A Beauty Dark
& Deadly is not the only
serialized novel your launching next week.
Can you briefly describe them and provide sign up links if anyone is
interested?

Of course!

Love in Neverland–
sequel to my dark YA retelling of Peter Pan.
The first book, Death in Neverland
is available to download for free here: http://amzn.to/1J1qMSG
in case anyone is interested and wants to catch up. To sign up for the sequel, all you need to do
is go here: http://eepurl.com/bLoM91

The Art of
Persuasion– a clean (though very sassy) time traveling new adult romantic
comedy. A young
woman wakes up in the bed of an infamous pirate captain wearing nothing but a
short dress. All she wants to do is go
home. All he wants to do is rescue her. And save his sister from a hanging. Whichever comes first. Sign ups are here: http://eepurl.com/bLoMJr

Inheriting
Starlight – a dark romantic science fiction novel. One sister is thought to be dead. One sister is set to inherit a galaxy she
does not want. Both will have to find
each other and themselves if they are to receive what they truly desire. Sign ups are here: http://eepurl.com/bLoNxf

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Hi, My name is Sandra, though for my blog I go by an adaptation of my middle name, Jeanz! I live in the UK, started blogging in Aug 2011. I have always loved books!. If a blurb catches my eye I will usually give reading it a go!

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